


The Pricking of my Thumbs

by Phoebe_Hunter



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, M/M, POV Peter Hale, POV Stiles, Peter Hale deserves his own warning label
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-23
Updated: 2014-08-23
Packaged: 2018-02-14 10:36:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2188587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoebe_Hunter/pseuds/Phoebe_Hunter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles knows you don’t have a Plan B (Plan Banshee?) like Peter’s if your endgame is to hang out in a downtown apartment…doing what? Being snarky?  Occasionally fighting evil? Watching <em>Buffy</em> reruns?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pricking of my Thumbs

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first thing I've written in this fandom (and the first thing I've written in quite a while). *proffers nervously* Please be gentle. 
> 
> I plan for this to be a series of vignettes focusing on Stiles and Peter, tying in to S4. I don't currently plan for there to be consummated Peter/Stiles, but given that Peter has UST with basically everything he encounters it's difficult not to let a little bit of that creep in. 
> 
> This first piece is very introspective; I plan for later ones to involve more action. Not like that. Minds out of the gutter. :p The next one will also be POV Peter, as I plan to switch between the two. 
> 
> There's nothing that really requires a warning except some discussions of Stiles' experiences with the nogitsune...if that changes later I'll update the warnings by chapter. :) 
> 
> Comments are loved and appreciated. 
> 
> I own nothing, including the _Veronica Mars_ reference. I feel like Stiles would have liked watching Veronica Mars (and trying to figure out the mysteries before Veronica did).

Peter keeps Stiles awake at night. Not like _that_ (ok, a little like that, it’s the V-necks, it’s not his fault...but that’s not the point.) Stiles has always been good at people. Not with people, he’s sure as hell never been great at that, but he gets people. It’s like algebra or physics. You spend enough time practising and people get easy to read.

But not Peter. Trying to figure out Peter is like trying to play chess when you only know half of the rules. Stiles doesn’t have enough points of reference. He’s trying to solve for X but there are too many variables and too many numbers and X stands for death.

He doesn’t know what Peter lost in the fire. Who he lost. Doesn’t know what he was like before. Doesn’t know whether he ever laughed or smiled without jagged edges. Doesn’t know whether he had a job or a wife or a child. Doesn’t know whether he was born into that careful mask of charismatic indifference or burnt into it.

And without knowing that, it’s hard to work out whether Peter’s mad or bad or dangerous or all of the above (ok, he’s definitely dangerous, so it’s more a toss-up between “mad” and “bad” and “both”.)

This he knows: Peter’s playing the long game. You don’t have a Plan B (Plan Banshee?) like Peter’s if your endgame is to hang out in a downtown apartment…doing what? Being snarky? Occasionally fighting evil? Watching _Buffy_ reruns?

That sort of Plan B says epic. It says lives ruined, blood shed. You don’t claw your way back out of the grave if you don’t _want_ something.

Then there are the other things Stiles knows. He knows what it’s like to be stuck in your mind with nothing for company but the drip drip drip of your thoughts. He knows what it’s like to claw at the bars until your nails are broken and your hands are bleeding. He knows the scratch of madness in the corners of your mind, nails on a chalkboard. He knows what it’s like to feel something catch a single thread and tug until it all unravels.

He knows what it’s like to kill people and taste the power like blood in your mouth.

He knows what it’s like to wonder whether or not you’re sane.

Trying to figure Peter out is like playing chess with the nogitsune. There are too many pieces on the board and he can’t keep track of whose turn it is to move. The pawns grow teeth and all the knights have eyes like sapphires. Stiles wonders if Peter counted fingers as well, counted fingers like the dead.

So he’ll let Peter go for now (like it’s his call). Hell, it’s not like they don’t already have a good track record for letting the bad guys wander around unmolested (hello, Deucalion). But sooner or later, he’s going to have to figure out what Peter’s up to.

And how to stop it.

And whether he should.


End file.
